It was particularly children, young people and the elderly who were hit hard by the interventionist measures against corona infection, believes the committee that has examined the handling of the pandemic.
The committee, which was chaired by former central bank governor Øysten Olsen, also believes that it took too long before the authority ended the shutdown, according to NTB.
Committee leader Øystein Olsen concluded that the authorities’ handling was generally good and that they had sufficient legislation and regulations to take the necessary measures. But the regulations were too poor to deal with a long-term crisis, Olsen pointed out during the press conference where he presented the committee’s findings.
One of the proposals from the corona committee is a national overview of health personnel who can contribute in a crisis situation.
The committee also believes that the pandemic and infection control measures hit the economy disproportionately.
According to VG, there was a clear skewed distribution in how the shutdown affected citizens financially.
Children and young people had to bear a disproportionately large burden. Children and young people had a low risk of illness and death as a result of covid infection, while their life development was significantly limited through reduced attendance at school and occasionally closed leisure activities.
Many suffered a loss of quality of life during two years of the pandemic and there are indications that a smaller number have suffered more long-term negative effects.
A consideration for children was to be assessed in matters concerning them, the committee believes that the authorities should make greater use of the experiences from earlier phases of the pandemic. In this way, the burden of measures for children and young people could be reduced in the latter phases of the pandemic.
We believe that there was not enough agreement between the objective of the group that should be protected and the concrete design of the measures.
And again, it goes back to the fact that the measures should have been more differentiated, and in this case in particular they were aimed at protecting children and young people in some areas, says committee leader Øystein Olsen to VG.
Long-term closures of grass-roots sports in particular receive criticism from the committee. The Corona Commission concluded in April 2022 that the authorities did not take good enough care of the vulnerable children in handling the pandemic, which they believed had increased differences in society.
There were also discussions within the government about the distribution of vaccines. Here, then Health Minister Bent Høie (H) stood for a more even distribution, but was opposed by his own government, including Finance Minister Jan Tore Sanner from the same party.
The Støre government is criticised for having acted hesitantly when omikrom spread before Christmas 2021. Then the whole of Norway was partially closed down over Christmas.
Nevertheless, both the commission and the committee concluded that the authorities’ handling of covid-19 was mainly good.
At first glance, it does not seem that the committee had focused any efforts on possible side effects as a result of the mRNA injections.